Scotland's top policeman yesterday said arming more officers would present a “greater risk and threat” to the public.

But with the country’s armed policing capability under scrutiny after the Westminster terror attack, chief constable Phil Gormley refused to rule out increasing the number of officers with Tasers.

Two policemen armed with stun guns will be stationed outside Holyrood while a three-week security review is carried out.

And the Scottish Police Federation conference this week heard calls for the 50,000-volt weapons to be more widely available to protect their members.

Speaking to the Record , Gormley said: “I think we need to disentangle two issues. The first one is: Is Scottish policing as well prepared as anywhere else in the UK to confront the terror threat? The answer, unequivocally, is yes.

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“Then there is a separate set of issues around officer safety. And I don’t rule anything in or anything out in terms of how we need to think about how we best protect officers.

“We need to make sure that we make properly considered decisions in terms of our response to that. And that’s what we will do.”

Earlier, Gormley took part in a Q&A session alongside Justice Secretary Michael Matheson at the SPA conference in Turnberry , Ayrshire.

Responding to a question about whether unarmed officers should be sent to incidents if armed officers are not available, Gormley said: ​“​We need to ensure we have a proper assessment of risk at control room, ​supervisors who are able to make the right decisions on the basis of the information they have got​ and enough armed officers to be able to support unarmed colleagues.

Cabinet Secretary for Justice Michael Matheson took part in in the Q&A session at Turnberry (Image: PA)